Alfred Hitchcock was a film maker who was able to incite terror and enjoyment in audiences for a half a century. He did so in an era where films with a lot of blood splatter and dismemberment were unknown. The thing that the viewer can imagine is very often far more terrifying that anything that can be put up on the screen. From spy thrillers like The Man Who Knew too Much, to psychological thrillers like Psycho, to monster features like The Birds, Hitchcock was truly the master of suspense. There have been attempts to remake Hitchcock films. They have all failed and indeed were doomed to fail. That’s because no one could do it like Hitchcock and no one ever will.

Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt, written by the great playwright Thornton Wilder, takes place in the small town of Santa Rosa, California in the summer of 1941, the summer before Pearl Harbor and the coming of war to American changed everything. A teenaged girl named Charlie, played by Teresa Wright, is living a calm, uneventful life with her parents and two younger siblings. The most exciting thing that is happening is an extended visit by her beloved Uncle Charlie, after whom she is named, played with by Joseph Cotton. Uncle Charlie is suave, debonair, handsome, and—unknown to anyone by the audience at first—very, very insane. He is a serial killer, preying on widowed women, and he is on the lam, thinking that his relatives’ house is a good sanctuary. He doesn’t reckon on the intelligence and perception of his niece.

Murder is quite unknown to Santa Rosa, simply the topic of morbid conversation with a mystery fan neighbor played by Hume Cronyn. But slowly, steadily, Young Charlie starts to suspect the horrible truth about her Uncle and, slowly, subtly, Uncle Charlie’s behavior and demeanor begins to change. The outward, attractive veneer is stripped to reveal the hideous, insane core. Young Charlie escapes death several times, as Uncle Charlie tries to silence her, until, at long last, the final, brutal confrontation on the speeding train.

Rope

Rope begins with a murder. Two college friends, Rupert, played by John Dall, and Brandon, played by Farley Granger, murder a third friend with a length of rope just to see what it would be like. Then they stuff the body in a trunk and use the trunk as a buffet table for a party whose guests include the murder victim’s girl friend, parents, and their old professor, played by Jimmy Stewart. The tension of the movie comes from the question: will the body be discovered? Rupert is supremely confident that it will not, while Brandon is a bundle of nerves over the possibility that it will be.

Some of the guests wonder, where is the missing young man? He was supposed to be here. The two murders, obviously based on Leopold and Loeb, engage is some by play with their old professor about Nietzschian philosophy, about the roles of super men and sub humans. The fact that this film was made just a few years after World War II, and the Nazi rule of Europe, provides this conversation with a certain resonance.

The last half hour of the film is some of the most suspenseful every put on the screen. How much does Jimmy Steward know? How much does he suspect? With the two college student murders get away with it? Or will they be found out and made to pay the price for their crime.

Strangers on a Train

En route from Washington, D.C., champion tennis player Guy Haines played by Farley Granger meets pushy playboy Bruno Anthony played Robert Walker. Bruno would very much like to do away with his spiteful father. Haines would like to marry a Senator’s daughter, but unfortunately cannot get a divorce from his current wife, a real piece of work who only wants to stay married to him to torment him. Bruno proposes a plan. Each will murder the other’s victim, hence neither murder would be connected to the one wanting to do it.

Though Haines refuses, Bruno is not put off that easily. Bruno stalks Haines’ wife through a carnival, accosts her, and then strangles her. When Haines finds out about this, he is naturally horrified. As someone who would benefit from the death of his wife, he is the number one suspect. And he feels no little guilt. He certainly wanted his wife dead and is secretly happy that she is. But he would not do the deed himself. Haines’ life gets even more complicated when Bruno shows up to insist that Haines now fulfill his part by murdering his father, a deadly cat and mouse game ensues.

There are some great set pieces in the film. They include the murder sequence, seen as a reflection in the victim’s fallen glasses. And there is the tennis match, when Haines must finish by a certain time if he is to survive the deadly game he finds himself in.

Rear Window

Freelance photographer L.B. Jeffries, played by Jimmy Steward, has a couple of problems. Having broken his leg, he is cooped up in his apartment, bored out of his mind. His only distraction is looking out the rear window, across the courtyard of his building, through the rear windows of the other tenants, observing their lives. There’s the newlywed couple, the dancer, the middle aged spinster, and the bickering couple. More about them later.

This bit of voyeurism earns Jeffries the disapproval of his visiting, wise cracking occupational nurse, played by Thelma Ritter. But Jeffries bigger problem is that he is in love with New York model and socialite Lisa, played with heart breaking elegance by Grace Kelly. Most people would not understand why this is a problem, especially since Lisa loves him back. However, Jeffries likes nothing better than to tramp through some of the worst third world hell holes on the planet, in search of that perfect photograph. Would Lisa, used to a life of cocktail parties, dinners, and fashion shows, suited for that kind of life? Jeffries thinks not. Of course, that all may just be an excuse for his fear of commitment.

Then one half of the bickering couple, the wife as it happens, disappears. There are midnight trips out of the building by the husband, played by Raymond Burr, and brief glances at knives and saws through the window. Has the husband done away with his shrewish wife? Jeffries has go to know. And, with the aid of Lisa and his nurse, he sets out to fins out. Along the way of solving the mystery, Jeffries discovers, to his surprise, that he girlfriend has a courage and resourcefulness not born in the fashion industry.

North by Northwest

Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant, is an advertising executive in New York, living at the top of the world. So he is surprised that several unpleasant men, including Philip Vandamm, played with great menace by James Mason, and his right hand thug Leonard, played by Martin Landau, insist that he is a government agent. In the course of the movie he is almost murdered several times, once by being put into a speeding car, drunk, with broken brakes, and once by a crop duster. He is framed for murder at the UN and is forced to flee across the United States by train. He is desperate to find out who this government agent whim he has been mistaken for is and to clear his name. After all, he has several ex wives, bartenders, and tailors to support.

There are compensations. Thornhill gets to share a train compartment with Eve Kendell, played by Eva Marie Saint. Who wouldn’t want to do that, no matter what the dangers involved? But who is she working for? For the good guys? For the men trying to kill Thornhill? For herself?

There are some wonderful set pieces. The aforementioned crop duster attack is one. The sequence at the Frank Lloyd Wright is another. But the best, of course, is the final confrontation on top of Mount Rushmore.

The film has a good performance by Leo Carroll as a spy master, who would play a similar role later in the TV series, The Man from Uncle, as well as one by Jessie Landis, as Thornhill’s formidable mother.